


Trust me

by Laura_Sinele



Series: Fictober 2019 drabbles [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: (mentioned) - Freeform, AU because I still haven't watched s03, Alcohol, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fictober 2019, Harringrove, Love Confessions, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, Song: Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran), Songfic, Sort Of, bear wirh me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 12:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20835380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laura_Sinele/pseuds/Laura_Sinele
Summary: Steve is not having fun at a Halloween party so Billy drives him home.





	Trust me

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time contributing to a prompt challenge. I intend to complete all the prompts but shit happens, so excuse me if I don’t. In the meantime, here’s this.
> 
> Based on prompt 1 for Fictober 2019: "It'll be fun, trust me".

Billy’s butt in those tight jeans was something to behold. Damn, it was the umptenth time he had caught himself thinking that, and he couldn’t even remember if it started happening before or after they’d made peace. Too many things gone apeshit at home and in the forest had made Billy reconsider his stance, and now the kids had one more (almost) adult to swing the bat for them if needed. And Steve had a friend his age that was not his ex-girlfriend nor his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend. 

Well, the closer thing to a friend. Steve probably considered them closer than Billy did, more than presumably due to his PTSD and the shortage of legal people to hang out with while he got drunk. At least that was what Steve was musing while openly staring at Billy’s ass, who was waiting in line to get them a drink at whatshername’s Halloween party. Then suddenly, Billy turned around with a shit-eating grin and left the line. Steve was startled and then mildly upset that he wasn’t getting any beer after waiting for forever ―not that the view hadn’t been entertaining what with Billy absentmindedly swaying to the music. 

‘What the fuck, Hargrove? The booze?!’, Steve complained. Billy was slowly creeping closer and only now did Steve realise which particular song was blasting off the very expensive sound system that girl’s parents had installed. Billy had caught him months ago mumbling it to himself while he sat alone at Mrs. Byer's living room, Jonathan and Nancy making out in the porch and the kids playing D&D locked in Will’s bedroom. Fucking Billy Hargrove was never ever going to let him live it down.

As Billy started to mouth the lyrics of Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf, Steve started to back off avoiding him. Damn Billy and his commitment to torment him, and how his eyes twinkled when the song said ‘I’m on a hunt, I’m after you’, and the movement of his hips, and his hands, and his smile earlier that afternoon when he had said ‘It’s not like every year hell’s going to rise on Halloween, and Hopper’s got the kids. It’ll be fun, trust me’. And now he was against the wall. And Billy was all over him. Steve rolled his eyes in despair while he thought ‘Trust you my ass’.

‘What’s the problem, pretty boy? Not hungry anymore?’

Steve had to shut his eyes intently for a second just to not give the first answer that came to his mind. ‘Not having fun, Billy’, he singsonged. When he opened his eyes he didn’t find the mocking smile he’d been expecting, but a sort of worried look on Billy’s face. ‘Okay’, said Billy as he gave some space to Steve. He combed his hands through his hair and seemed to consider his options. ‘Okay then. What if we grab a bottle of something, a bag of chips and head to the lake?’

Steve did a double take on that. It’s not that they hadn’t spent time alone and drinking before, at night or at any other time of the day, really. It was more the way Billy was asking, as if he was afraid that this time, for some reason, it was not okay for them to do it. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and stammered, ‘Yeah, or… you know, we could… we could get back to mine and raid my father’s liquor stash?’. Billy’s devious smile slowly reappeared. ‘Yeah’, he nodded. ‘Yeah, that sound good to me’.

They'd come to the party in Billy's car, so Billy was the one driving to Steve’s house. On the way, he tuned in a station Steve positively knew he hated, but when Hungry Like the Wolf Started to play, Steve stopped wondering why. Only this time Billy didn’t sing along, didn’t mock Steve in any way. 

They arrived and Billy parked right beside the beamer not threatening to scratch it or anything as he always did just to spite Steve. By then he was starting to get worried and maybe even a little paranoid about Billy's strange behaviour. Once inside the house Billy took off his filthy boots without being prompted to and waited standing by the sofa for Steve to come back with drinks and snacks. Steve set them on the coffee table and switched on the TV. He snapped when Billy still hadn’t made any motion to sit and sprawl taking most of the couch like he used to do the second he passed the door. 

‘Okay man, what the fuck is going on?!’

‘What?’, asked Billy innocently, hands in his pockets.

‘What’s with you acting all proper all of a sudden? You’re acting weird, dude’.

‘I’m acting weird?’, asked Billy with incredulity.

‘You know what? Nevermind. Let’s just sit down and watch TV and get drunk. My folks won’t be coming til Monday anyway. For a change. Huh’. He sat down looking kind of defeated, popped open a beer and sulked for a while. 

Billy grabbed another beer and sat like a human being, unusually close to Steve but not touching him. He remained silent, glancing every now and then at Steve, who could tell by the soft noise of Billy’s flannel shirt against the couch's leather. After taking a couple of swigs he half-turned to Steve and asked ‘You know what is weird?’.

Steve startled a little and looked at him with his big brown eyes like a deer caught in a ten ton truck’s headlights. ‘What’, he said dumbly, beer bottle midway to his mouth.

‘The little things, man’. Steve scoffed a laugh. ‘I’m serious’, insisted Billy. ‘I mean, shit like gestures, habits, actions. Those things say things, man’.

Steve looked at him seriously for a second. Then scoffed again, then let out a single laugh. ‘Okay dude. Those things say things… Uh, have you been smoking weed without me noticing or what?’.

Billy smiled and punched him playfully in the upper arm. ‘Shut the fuck up, I’m tryinna say something here’.

Some moments of silence ensued, where they shot glances at each other and stifled their laughter when they locked eyes. Steve decided he was going to ignore the gravity void over his stomach, and neither was he going to acknowledge that it had been sitting there for a long while now every time he and Billy hung out together.  
‘So’, Billy resumed, ‘people can say things… we say things without talking, right? We… we might love our little siblings but we are not telling them because reasons, but maybe we let them drive the car when our folks are not around, or take the fall for them because we are older and tougher and can stand it better’. Billy looked at Steve to see if he was following. Steve said ‘I’m telling Max you love her’. Billy punched him again, harder. ‘Fuck you, Harrington. What I’m saying is, sometimes you don’t need to talk to know what the other thinks or how the other feels’. He looked at Steve again, intently. Steve took a swig of beer and waited for the shit to hit the fan. 

‘I mean. You, for instance’. Oh, yes, there it was. ‘You care for the little freaks, for Max. You care for Nancy and Jonathan even though… you know. I know that because of the things you do and say to them and for them. And I’m still trying to get why would you care about a guy that broke your pretty face’. Steve looked up from his empty bottle and found no teasing, so he proceeded to look down again and wait for the proverbial fan to hit top revolutions.

‘And lately I’ve been noticing how you look at… I started to think that maybe there’s more to it, it’s not just that you care like you care for everybody in this weird paranormal fighting family. I’ve been thinking you care in a different way and I don’t want to…’

Steve stood up and started to collected empty bottles and chip bags as he said ‘Point taken, I don’t want to make things weird either. I’ll stop looking at you like that, not that I am gay, for the record, it’s just you, I mean…’

‘Harrington’, said Billy as he took one of Steve’s wrists, and it sounded like a command. Steve dropped everything he’d been picking up. ‘Look at me’. Steve did. ‘How do you think I noticed the way you look at me?’ Steve sighed and sat down on the couch. Billy didn’t let off his wrist. 

‘I don’t know. Please enlighten me’, he said, defeated, as he locked eyes with Billy again.

‘You’re a fucking dumbass, Harrington. It’s because I was looking at you too’.

Steve narrowed his eyes not wanting to understand what he had just heard. He started babbling a question but he fell silent when he felt Billy’s hand on his wrist slide down slowly, tentatively, and thread their fingers. He looked down at their hands, just to make sure. Then up again, and found that Billy was scared. They’d been punching monsters from the Upside-down side by side and the fucker had been laughing maniacally. And now he was scared. His lower lip, which was suddenly very interesting for Steve, trembled a little before he talked.

‘If I’m getting this wrong, you can get your payback for smashing your face right now and I won’t stop you’

Steve took a deep breath and covered his face with both hands. Billy immediately shifted by him and muttered his apologies as he stood up and strode to the door.

‘Wait, wait, who’s a dumbass now?’, Steve called, walking after him.  
‘I don’t know, Harrington, maybe we both are dumbasses. Besides, how was this ever going to work in this fucking town?’

Steve took a fistful of Billy’s shirt and crashed their lips together. It was an urgent kiss, open-mouthed and desperate. It felt like an eternity but it was over in a few seconds. Still with their lips not much apart, Harrington and Hargrove rested their foreheads together and laughed softly at their audacity, their doubts and the world. 

‘It’ll be fun’, whispered Steve against Billy’s soft, wet lips, ‘trust me’.


End file.
